


Targets met

by Keenir



Series: The Three Points To Victory [1]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: AU, For Want of a Nail, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-28
Updated: 2019-04-28
Packaged: 2020-02-08 17:46:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18628183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Keenir/pseuds/Keenir
Summary: In which it is Azula who is scarred by Fire Lord Ozai, and her recovery from that.





	Targets met

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Thingsareswinging](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thingsareswinging/gifts).



> I watched a Youtube vid the other day, which asked what if Azula had been in Zuko's place during the series. I disagree with parts of it, particularly **a.** that Azula would never get scarred, and **b.** that Azula would never do anything _after_ she gets scarred as she lacks Zuko's determination.

Fire Prince Iroh saw it coming a mile away.  And minutes beforehand.  _Azula,_ he thought ruefully.  _That was not the proper move_ , less ironic than some might consider, given that it was being thought by The Dragon Of The West, the veritable - if unofficial - lord of unconventiality itself.   _I don't know yet what prompted this reaction by my brother, but I do know that you should not have done that on the Agni Kai grounds_ , as Azula's tightly-fired blast of flame shot alongside her father's elbow when the Fire Lord turned to dodge the attack.

 _But then, I suspect it isn't something you would have learned.  Lu Ten failed to learn it until a year before..._ as his son-related thoughts twisted in his mind to watch the Agni Kai unfold before them both. 

"You dare..." Fire Lord Ozai said - more _at_ Azula than _to_ her.  He did not think that she was proving how good a student she had been.  He did not remind himself that Azula had not been taught to fire a single warning shot and then kneel before a superior in an Agni Kai.  He simply added this slight to the list of her shortcomings, _and so soon after the one which landed her here, facing against me_.

"Father," Azula said,  though her shoulders and elbows and wrists were in perfect form for another volley, her fingers wavered at the prospect of striking her lord, her king, her father.  _Agni Kai or not, I do not want this_ , she thought, and for once was unable to escape doing something which she didn't care for.  _What do I say?  What could I say?_ For all the prospect of fleeing into the crowds like some coward was distasteful to even have considered that much, there was nothing any more palatable.

Ozai fired a concentrated sphere a little ways in front of his daughter's feet, and watched as the pressure wave from that, bowled her down.

Standing over Azula, Ozai considered what to do with her.  _Her hair is the only part of her face she truly cares for, however smartly she dresses - and taking her hair would be too brief a punishment for her transgression.  She is not as easy to penalize as her brother,_ he granted; _who admits even to me that his sister is the more talented one of the two of them.  'More talented, better at bending, gifted.'_   And, at that, Ozai smiled, more to himself than the crowd watching this Agni Kai.  _Yes, yes that will be perfect_ , and took aim.

And at his target, he fired.

* * *

* * *

 

"You're doing better," Ty Lee said, bringing a glass to Azula's lips so her friend could drink. Here in the best hospital the Fire Nation possessed.

"Why are you still here?" Azula asked her, the princess' voice more like coals than her baking voice, and a very far cry from her bonfire of a laugh.   One court official had offered to summon someone who could with their bending heal Princess Azula's hand. That official had found himself demoted and with the brand-new position of He Who Stands At The Base Of Ba Sing Se For All Time.   _Thanks to that update from Mai, I know Father isn't planning to wipe this away.  Meaning I'm stuck with it.  Or it with me._

Knowing better than to use the 'fr' word, Ty Lee smiled, set the glass down, and said, "You were thirsty."

"You still think we're friends, do you?" Azula asked.

 _Well, since you used the 'fr' word, its okay for me to too,_ Ty Lee thought.  "I know we are." _Just not saying the word yet_.

"Why??  I've been struck down in front of the great and mighty of the Fire Nation.  No point plotting to shove Zuko aside and take the throne before him, not now.  Not ever," she added in a lower, quieter voice.

Azula's flexible friend frowned before saying, "You're still the bestest and prettiest and smartest person I know."  

"That needs to be remedied - go meet people."

Ty Lee smiled, treating it as a joke rather than an order.  "When do we go?"

To Ty Lee's ears, it sounded almost like the coals were dimming, emitting more smoke than redness or warmth:  "I can't go.  Not anywhere," and very nearly almost raised her wrapped arm.   Ty Lee noted - without showing that she noticed it - how Azula was willing to look anywhere _but_ in the vicinity of her bandage-wrapped hand.  Also noting how, despite how only one hand had been punished by the Fire Lord, Azula was trying not to use either hand.

"You know, I used to know a guy -"

"What a shock," Azula taunted.

"- who used to walk on his hands all the time.  Elbows too, when the performance called for it.  I could get him for you."

"I don't want him."

"And his arms were worse than yours, both of them," Ty Lee finished.

Azula said nothing.

Iroh entered the room, and accepted the nods that Mai and Ty Lee gave him.  _I wasn't planning to do this.  I had hoped to groom Zuko to rise to the throne, since Lu Ten cannot.  But I need to help.  My niece needs my help, and I want to give it._

Azula turned her head so her bangs fell and shaded her eyes, then she placed her plain hand over those eyes.

 _However tempting it may be to offer my sympathies and go with my original plan.  She is hurting,_ and Iroh could see that last thought in the others' eyes as well.  "Niece," Iroh said.

"Dragon of the West," Azula said, not moving from that position.

"I have business to conclude in the Earth Kingdom, and do ask if you will assist me in completing the task."

"Why?"

"Besides the fact that you are my niece, that you are Azula the grandchild of Azulon?" Iroh asked.

"Take them," her eye-sheltering fingers waving at Ty Lee and Mai. 

"With you," both girls said as one.

 _Well that spares me from having to say that; but that's not much improved.  And this would be so much easier if it were Zuko I were talking to._ "Tell me, Azula, did your father melt your brain?"

"No!" Azula said as strongly as mild coals could.

"Did your recent Agni Kai remove problem-solving from your myriad skills?"

"No."

"Then what possible reason could you have for refusing me you as an assistant?" Iroh asked, suspecting how she would answer, which could only lay the trap that much better.

"I f...  I failed, Uncle," Azula said in what was as close to a wail or a bemoaning as he had ever heard from her.  "I failed to win."

"You were defeated, you mean." _I doubt my brother intended to remove her firebending ability.  I know as well as he does - I taught to him - that the finest firebenders take pride in their hands, that they look at them whether bending or not._

"Yes.  I was deef....defeated."

 _However easy certain things are for us when speaking of others,_ Iroh knew, _how hard it becomes when those same words are affixed to us._   "You mean you were defeated by my brother, a man twice your age, with three times your level of training.  The surprise is that you did not expect to lose."

Her good hand going back to her side, she glares at him -

 _This is a good sign_.

\- and she says, "I never expect to lose."

Iroh smiles at that.  "And that is why I have complete confidence in you."

"Even now?"

"Especially now."

 _Huh?_ Ty Lee wonders.  _But with Azula's family, theres a time to ask for clarification, a time to wait to ask for clarification, and a time to just let go of what you want to ask about._

And now the princess raises both her arms, as though only now examining them, contemplating them.  "My hands, Uncle."

"Yes?" Iroh asks, suspecting where Azula is taking this, but not fully confident of it.

"I am _**burned**_ ," Azula says.

Perfectly calmly, "If you're not about to take Ty Lee up on her suggestion -"

"Absolutely not.  He's probably even more vapid."

Ty Lee's nod isn't reassuring.

"Then among the many skills I learned during the siege of Ba Sing Se is how to amputate limbs.  Would that settle you, niece; ease your mind, if I removed the offending hand?"

"But Father -"

"I will handle my brother, whatever happens.  Now, shall I amputate?"

"No," Azula says, tucking her wrapped hand as close to her belly as the blankets and bandages allow.

 _I shall reply as though you were addressing only my offer; if you were saying that it would not be me to deal with my brother at some later time...we will discuss this._ "Then what is your objection about your hand, if the hand does not itself offend you."

 _It offends me plenty, Uncle, but I won't be chopped at._   "I don't know if I can still bend."

"That is all?" Iroh asked.

"That's it," Azula said, not caring to examine that closely.

"I have witnessed you outthink and outmaneuver some of my best officers, men who are older than I am," Iroh said.  "You could still earn fame and glory without being able to bend."

Azula knew that look on Uncle's face:  _it means you made a reference you know I know,_ so she dived into her memory, and pulled out "Sozin's mother couldn't firebend," Azula said to herself.  _And she ruled, as a Princess, as a Queen, and as a Dowager after her son died.   She was in the line of succession, and even her inability did not obstruct her._

"Indeed, she boasted of it."

Azula didn't seem to hear him, as she was too busy studying her own unscarred hand.  _You are on my side_ Azula mentally commanded, then, before she could stop herself, _...yes?_

As if in answer, a spark of flame jumped from her thumb to her pinky to the heel of her hand.

Azula pretended not to hear Ty Lee's squeal of delight, nor Mai's congrats; though the Fire Princess didn't bother to stop herself from grinning.

"So, not handicapped after all," Iroh observed.

Tempted as she was to snort at that, Azula sighed.  __There are probably worse fates for me than studying under Uncle for a time._   _"Where are we going?"

Iroh smiled, which unsettled Azula as much as her smiles unsettled most people.  "I leave that up to you," carefully not saying 'in your hands.'  _That would not have helped matters, and I am going to try my best_.  _Besides, there are a great many curious things going on in the Earth Kingdom right now, any one of which can surely handle the full intensity of my niece's attention._

"Ugh," Azula groaned, which earned a smile from Ty Lee and Mai.

**Author's Note:**

> If she lacked determination, Azula wouldn't have tried so many ways to capture the Avatar. Its self-doubt that's crippling for her, and I kinda pulled her out of that a little quick, I admit.


End file.
